*A street corner in New York City’s Lower East Side is officially named after the legendary rap group the Beastie Boys.
As People reports, Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz and Michael “Mike D” Diamond attended the unveiling on Saturday on the corner of Ludlow and Rivington. The intersection appears on the cover of their 1989 LP “Paul’s Boutique.”
The New York City Council first voted against renaming the area “Beastie Boys Square” in 2014, but approved the name change eight years later, in 2022, Rolling Stone reports.
“We walk around these streets and we don’t really think about who they’re named after, like Ludlow Street, Irving Street, Father Demo Square,” Horovitz, 56, said, per Rolling Stone.
“But it makes me really happy to know that some kid on their way to school 50 years from now is gonna pass by this and look up and be like, ‘What the f— is a Beastie Boy and why the f— do they have a square?’”
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Horovitz also thanked the city of New York “for teaching us what to look at, what to listen to, what to wear, how to love, how to live.”
Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, better known as MCA, died in 2012 from parotid cancer. After his death, the group disbanded.
“The second we heard rap music, it was so revolutionary and so exciting, the fact that we somehow got to go from being literally kids listening to every hip-hop record, mixtape, song we could possibly try to memorize every word, thinking that we’d be able to actually make a rap record, and go on to make those rap records, and now here we are all those years later, thank you so much for everything,” Diamond, 57, told the crowd Saturday, per Rolling Stone.
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“I wanna thank everyone that loves Beastie Boys music,” Ad-Rock said. “I don’t really understand why, but I know that I love it, so in a way that makes us kind of friends, like we bonded over these weird records, so thank you.”
The Instagram account for the Beastie Boys Square initiative celebrated the street naming in a post that read: “Ladies & Gentlemen after almost 10 years of hard work via @heterodoxxinc it is with great pleasure to welcome all to #BeastieBoysSquare. Formally unveiled and dedicated September 9th 2023, which included utilizing art to make a difference, new mural by @daniellebknyc, and additional fence street art by #HeteroDoxXInc. Salute to @beastieboys @garbagefeet, @miked, and #RIPMCA”
Thank you NYC
Photo by @poonehghana pic.twitter.com/JZH45Ftp0a
— Beastie Boys (@beastieboys) September 10, 2023
The post continued, “S/O to their families, Beastie Boys team, friends, and fans, for the #BeastieBoysSquare support over the years, despite being voted against 24 to 1 by the local community board, then they attempted to sabotage the campaign, including I democratically banning it for five years, however the fight was right and #HipHopDontStop, in turn now @beastieboys is another Hip Hop landmark on the map via #HeteroDoxXInc. Happy 50th Anniversary to Hip Hop, and thank you Beastie Boys for your significant contribution to the art & culture.”
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READ MORE: Watch Questlove Tell The Beastie Boys How ‘Paul’s Boutique’ Changed His Life | The Tonight Show
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